Richard Damms, Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s Academy & Development Coach, is juggling a phone interview with Cricket Yorkshire while doing the Christmas shopping in Barnsley. It’s an opportunity, as he circumnavigates the mayhem around Black Friday, to reflect on the Academy’s debut in the inaugural season of ECB Yorkshire Premier League North. The Academy is […]
Have cricket clubs recovered from last winter’s flooding?
There is nothing more likely to chill the blood of those involved at cricket clubs than the imminent threat of flooding. The devastation caused by the floods of 2015 is still being felt today. As Storm Angus battered the country this week with severe gales and heavy rain, there was the reminder that this could […]
Meet the man at the ECB tasked with reviving grassroots cricket
Even before my debut question to Matt Dwyer, Director of Participation & Growth at the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), there is a surprise. He asks me what I think about the recreational game in Yorkshire. It’s pleasantly unusual. This from the ECB, the governing body who so irk cricket fans and are routinely […]
What’s on the agenda for Andrew Gale as Yorkshire’s first-team coach?
Embed from Getty Images One of the burning questions of the autumn has been resolved as Yorkshire County Cricket Club captain Andrew Gale announced his retirement to become the successor to Jason Gillespie as first-team coach. This bold move by the county sees continuity within the club with Gale taking over, having led Yorkshire to […]
Going in to bat for Yorkshire visually impaired cricket
What must it be like to play cricket if you’re visually impaired? It was a thought preoccupying me on the walk up to the Indoor Cricket Centre at Yorkshire County Cricket Club to watch a taster session run by Yorkshire VICC. I’ve written about VI cricket before with Cricket Yorkshire but it has been a […]
Questions to answer ahead of England’s Test series with India
Embed from Getty Images Well, England drawing the two-Test series with Bangladesh was not in any script. Bangladesh have never beaten England in Test cricket until now (Zimbabwe and West Indies were their only victories in nearly a hundred Tests) so it’s a significant milestone in their history. To achieve some sort of perspective, according […]
Technology offers broadcast hope for cricket but beware too many strings
Embed from Getty Images The Test match in Chittagong that England edged by twenty two runs was acclaimed as an absolute humdinger. This was down-to-the-wire, chew-your-fingernails-ragged, watch-between-splayed-fingers sporting tension but how many followed it? It got me thinking about the shifting sands of how we consume media and that the fractured nature of broadcasting and […]
Sicklinghall: What do you do when your cricket club is burnt to the ground?
Sicklinghall Cricket Club is reeling with shock after a fire, believed to have started before midnight last Saturday, has completely destroyed all of their buildings. Absolutely nothing is left. The clubhouse, scorebox and equipment shed along with memorabilia and machinery are all gone with North Yorkshire Police and Fire Services unable to prevent the blaze claiming everything. This proud club has […]
Who will succeed Jason Gillespie at Yorkshire County Cricket Club?
The departure of the popular Australian coach Jason Gillespie has left a void at Yorkshire County Cricket Club after a very successful era at Headingley in which he masterminded successive County Championships. Natural talk of Dizzy’s successor is rife given it’s a plum job at a prestigious club with all of its recent success and […]
Arthington’s tradition of October cricket lives on
As if to prove that cricket is very much alive and kicking in this part of Yorkshire, as I got out of the car at Arthington Cricket Club last Sunday, a straight six thudded the ball into the grass behind me. It was a spectacular afternoon in this slice of Wharfedale, north of Leeds, proving […]